EVENT: Author-led Book Group on "Anglican Slavery in New Jersey"

The Reparations Commission of the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey invites you to a free, author-led, Zoom book group on the recently released Anglican Slavery in New Jersey: An Initial Accounting with author Jolyon Pruszinski. Jolyon is a lecturer in the Departments of Religion and History at Princeton University and the research historian for the Reparations Commission. All are welcome (no need to be Episcopalian or from New Jersey). The book group will run on Thursday nights at 7-8pm (ET) from April 16 to May 21, 2026. To pre-register (required to attend) CLICK HERE. The pre-reading for the week 1 discussion is available online through google books. Full digital copies of the book are available for $9.99 on Amazon. Discounted print copies (50% off) will be available in-person at the March 21, 2026 Stations of Reparations Service at St. Elizabeth's Episcopal Church, Elizabeth, New Jersey; or you can receive a publisher's coupon code for 40% off when you sign up for the publisher's digital newsletter. 

In order to make for the best possible discussions, if you are able please read the following sections in advance:

for April 16... pages xi-xxxii,

for April 23... pages 3-39,

for May 7... pages 41-73,

for May 14... pages 77-119,

for May 21... pages 123-145.

We hope you'll be able to attend!

Why do Churches do Memory Work?

Emily S. Pruszinski (the author)

Too often throughout history leaders and members of the church have provided theological cover for injustices both small and great in scale. Too often the church has reaped the benefits of injustice instead of refusing to receive ill-gotten gain, or denounce those who exploited their fellow human beings. Too often members of the church, out of greed and a lust to dominate, have actively participated in perpetrating injustice, all while remaining “in good standing” within their local church bodies. Too often the church actively promotes a culture of forgetfulness, in which the details of these stories are quickly and conveniently forgotten. In each case, the victims of injustice are ignored, their cries unheard or silenced, their stories buried or erased (the Diocese of New Jersey Racial Justice Review has chronicled many such examples). But Christians have many good reasons to remember wrongs, and to work to make them right.

The opportunity and, dare I say, requirement to remember our past is integral to our liturgy. Throughout Christian liturgy we remember the past for its importance for the present. And in so doing, we remember, not just the life of Jesus, but our own past as well. This latter memory is most obvious during the general confession.[1] Confession requires memory of past wrongdoing, both recent and distant. And the text of the confession does not use I language, but WE language. We confess our sins against God and neighbor. We confess that we have done wrong and not done right. And this “we” language matters for how we understand memory.

As Christians we are part of a global church, and as Episcopalians we are part of the global Anglican communion. Each time we gather for corporate prayer and worship, and each time we celebrate the Eucharist, we gather not just with a single living congregation, but with all the simultaneously living members of the global church, and the dead members of both our particular church and our larger communion.[2]

Our present church community exists in continuity with those who have gone before us. Our group – the Church – includes its dead members spiritually, in prayer and in memory,[3] and physically, in the ways that our church architecture includes burial grounds, columbaria, memorial gardens, and plaques. We have integrated the memory of our church founders and former esteemed members into our buildings, and though at times we may forget, we are the spiritual descendants of these, now silent, but still present members of our communion. These are our religious ancestors. We may not be related to them genetically, but we are related to them through our common participation in a particular church, in a particular location, over time. By participating in, and being confirmed in, the Church we become inheritors of their legacies. 

Our liturgy reminds us in countless ways that we are in communion with members of the faith both living and dead. But speaking particularly, using WE language in our corporate confession of sin specifically includes not only the people we see in church each Sunday, but also the people who sat in our pews fifty, one hundred, even two-hundred years ago. When we, the living, confess and ask for forgiveness, we do so on behalf of the dead as well.[4]  

But there’s more. Through liturgical acts of confession and repentance we express our desire to walk in God’s ways,[5] to treat our neighbors in ways that would delight God, and to be God’s hands and feet on this earth. Our confession comes packaged with responsibility to do right by our neighbors here and now.[6] This entails fixing the harms of the past that continue to affect our neighbors in the present. 

How can we do what is necessary to repair the harms of the past, if we forget those harms? If we forget who the victims were (and are)? The short answer is “We can’t.” Such ill-informed efforts will be misdirected and inadequate. Or worse, we will not even see how or why we should exert effort to make repairs in the first place. 

This, in short, is the reason churches should, and do, engage in memory work. Widespread poverty, racial injustice, job and housing insecurity, chronic illness from exposure to environmentally harbored toxins, lack of access to healthcare resources, and violent police tactics are all indicators of a broken system. Our religious ancestors either actively created the injustices themselves, created the conditions for these present injustices to become possible, or suffered under similar conditions. Knowing the details enables informed and effective responses.

In Germany, generations born after World War II have had to work to uncover the evils done by their ancestors, many of which were deliberately hidden. This became known as the “dig where you stand,” movement,[7] and has been oriented around documenting what can be found about the past in an effort to work for a more just world. As Episcopalians[8] we too have inherited a legacy of injustices where we now worship, even when we don’t know it. For us to “dig where we stand” involves first examining how our religious ancestors perpetrated, and cooperated with harm. Then it involves allowing those memories to guide us as we discern how to take responsibility for reparative justice in our present. If we are to repent effectively for the wrongs we are implicated in, wrongs which continue to cause injustice today, we have to know what those wrongs have been so that we can take appropriate steps to remedy them.

 

Emily S. Pruszinski

Doctoral Candidate in Theology, Ethics, and Politics

Princeton Theological Seminary

---

[1] E.g. from Holy Eucharist I (BCP 331): “We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, which we from time to time most grievously have committed, provoking most justly thy wrath and indignation against us. We do earnestly repent, and are heartily sorry for these our misdoings; the remembrance of them is grievous unto us, the burden of them is intolerable…. Forgive us all that is past…” Or “We confess that we have sinned against thee in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved thee with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.” Emphasis added. In all this language the past tense is conspicuous. In Episcopal worship accurate memory of the past is critical to confession and repentance. One could argue that liturgically emphasized memories of Jesus are meant to provide a counterpoint to our memories of the ways we have fallen short of his life, teachings, and ideals.

[2] The Prayers of the People set us in direct relation to, and community with the dead. See, for instance, “The Prayers of the People,” in Holy Eucharist I (Book of Common Prayer [henceforth, BCP], 328-330).

[3] E.g. from Holy Eucharist I (BCP, 330): “And we also bless thy holy Name for all thy servants departed this life in thy faith and fear… beseeching thee to grant them continual growth in thy love and service; and to grant us grace so to follow the good examples of… all thy saints, that with them we may be partakers of thy heavenly kingdom.” Emphasis added.

[4] And in some liturgies we acknowledge explicitly that they have done harm of which we are the beneficiaries when we repent of “both the evils we have done, and the evil done on our behalf.” The Church Pension Fund, “Confession,” in Enriching Our Worship 1 (New York: Church Publishing, 1998), 19.

[5] E.g. BCP, 331.

[6] John the Baptist’s proclamation “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matt 3:8; Luke 3:8), and Paul’s “do deeds consistent with repentance” (Acts 26:20) are relevant here.

[7] Reinhard Bernbeck and Susan Pollock, “‘Grabe, Wo Du Stehst!’ An Archaeology of Perpetrators,” in Archaeology and Capitalism: From Ethics to Politics, edited by Yannis Hamilakis and Philip Duke (New York: Routledge, 2016), 217-233.

[8] Though the same pattern holds for all Christians and, indeed, all people of good will. 

EVENT: 4th Annual Stations of Reparations Service, March 21, 2026

The Reparations Commission of the Diocese of New Jersey invites you to a family event during Lent: the fourth annual Stations of Reparations Service, a moving liturgy with congregational reflections on our racial history, including reflections from St. Mark's Church, Plainfield, St. Peter's Church, Perth Amboy, Trinity Church, Cranford, and St. Elizabeth's Church, Elizabeth. The service will occur on Saturday March 21, 2026 at 11am at St. Elizabeth's, Elizabeth (at 305 N. Broad Street, Elizabeth, NJ 07207) following the joint Diocese of Newark-Diocese of NJ Union of Black Episcopalians meeting. Live-streaming details to follow.

NEWS: Black History Month 2026 at DNJRJR

"Black History Month Design" by Marina Shemesh (License: CC0 Public Domain)

Welcome to Black History Month at the Diocese of New Jersey Racial Justice Review! To honor Black history this month, every day of February the DNJRJR will be sharing a Diocese of New Jersey Black history post on our Facebook page. Follow the page to make sure you don’t miss any (because let’s be honest, the algorithms don't really help)!

 

Jolyon G. R. Pruszinski, Ph.D.

Reparations Commission Historian

Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey

JOHN N. STILL’S CALL TO RESIST THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT

Detail of “The National Colored Convention…” (by Theo. R. Davis, Harpers Weekly [2/6/1869]: 65.)

The New York State "Convention of Colored People" met in July of 1851, and among the important orders of business was addressing the recently passed Fugitive Slave Act. A committee of three was assigned to report on the Act and recommended measures. Among them was John N. Still, a well-known businessman and activist working in Brooklyn. Still would go on shortly after this to become the first Black candidate for the priesthood in the Diocese of New Jersey.[1] The deeply compelling text of the committee report relies on two key authoritative sources: the Christian scriptures and the national founding documents. The committee concludes that the Act is unjust both according to the laws of God and to the principles of the Declaration and Constitution. Their report calls all citizens to a campaign of faithful obedience to God and disobedience of the Act. Though Still’s priesthood candidacy was never advanced, and he remained only a candidate for nine straight years (an indication of the racism in the diocese at that time), his influence for abolitionist principles and Black empowerment were clear in his over decade of fruitful ministry in the free Black settlement of Macedonia in Shrewsbury, New Jersey.[2] Below is the full text of the Report[3] of the Committee on the Fugitive Slave Bill. The full published convention proceedings can be found HERE.

 

Jolyon G. R. Pruszinski, Ph.D.

Reparations Commission Historian

Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey

------------

 

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON FUGITIVE SLAVE BILL

 

The undersigned appointed a committee to report on the FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW, beg leave to submit the following preamble and resolutions: 

            That we the colored citizens of the State of New-York believing that the dearest rights and liberties, belonging to us as freemen, are fearfully endangered by the Fugitive Slave Law recently enacted by our National Legislature, and having a tender sympathy with our brethren who escape from slavery—being assembled in convention to consider said law—do deliberately and seriously resolve,

1. That this law, in requiring the freemen of the north to deliver up fugitives from slavery to the iniquitous and oppressive bondage from which they have heroically escaped, is in direct and impious opposition to the command of the Supreme Law Giver—a command, like the moral law, obligatory in all ages from its very nature—“Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which is escaped from his master unto thee; he shall dwell with thee, even among you in that place which he shall choose, in one of thy gates where it liketh him best; thou shalt not oppress him:” That this law, in forbidding men under the penalty of heavy fines and imprisonment to harbor or assist fugitives from slavery, is in direct and impious opposition to those laws of God which command deeds of humanity and mercy;--that in both these respects this law is in direct and impious opposition to the essence and sum of “the law and the prophets,” declared by the divine Redeemer, “all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them,”—and therefore that no man can, in these respects, obey this law, without palpable and flagrant disobedience to God.

            2. That this law is plainly and essentially opposed to that self-evident truth in the Declaration of Independence by these United States, “that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;” and that no man can approve or obey this law without contradicting this united declaration of the people of this Republic.

            3. That this law directly and palpably violates those fundamental provisions of the Constitution of the United States which secure to “every person” the right of trial by jury, and in cases occurring under the laws of the United States, the right of trial by a Court of the United States, (which a Commissioner under this law is not) and the privilege of the habeas corpus act, and of counsel when accused, and therefore all citizens of the United States are bound by their obligations under the Constitution, not to obey, but to disobey, this law.

            4. That the duties of men towards fugitives from oppression are plain—the duties dictated by humanity and mercy—the bestowment of comfort, sympathy, and needful aid; and we call, therefore, on the inhabitants of the state of New-York to imitate the noble example of the people of New Haven, Ct., who, in the days of the hunted and fugitive judges, who condemned to death an oppressive King of England, obeyed the exhortation of their pious pastor, the reverend John Davenport, founded on the Divine command, [“]Hide the outcast; betray not him that wandereth; be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler.”

            5. That we feel ourselves to be weak, needing help; and we earnestly ask of our white friends to give us their aid in our distress, and to show not only in private, but in public, that they have feeling hearts and willing hands.

            6. That we believe that public opinion is the bulwark of all law, and that this ODIOUS and CRUEL LAW will be entirely inoperative, if the moral sense of this community speaks; and therefore we ask of this community, with the voice of our oppressed people, that they will give such an expression of their sentiments respecting this law as will protect this place from the step of the man-hunter, and their homes and hearts from the cries and tears of his victims.

            7. That we are fully determined, here in our places, to wait the issue; to rest our cause upon God, upon the friends of religion and humanity, and upon our own manhood; to bear ourselves so as to prove that we are worthy, not only of liberty, but of the full privileges of citizen, some of which are now denied us; and to surrender life rather than to be taken into slavery.

            8. Resolved, That the fugitive slave law is the law of tyrants.

            9. Resolved, That disobedience to tyrants is obedience to GOD.

            10. Resolved, That we will obey God.

 

AMOS GERRY BEMAN,

JOHN NELSON STILL,

J.P. JOHNSON,

Committee.

---

[1] See Jolyon G. R. Pruszinski, “John N. Still (1815-?), Abolitionist, Businessman, and First Black Candidate for Holy Orders in the Diocese of New Jersey,” DNJRJR (11 November 2025): https://dionj-racialjusticereview.blogspot.com/2025/11/john-n-still-1815-abolitionist.html.

[2] Jolyon G. R. Pruszinski, “The Episcopal Mission at the Free Black Settlement of Macedonia, NJ: 1853-1887,” DNJRJR (26 May 2025): https://dionj-racialjusticereview.blogspot.com/2025/05/the-episcopal-mission-at-free-black.html.

[3] Amos Gerry Beman, John Nelson Still, and J.P. Johnson, “Report of Committee on Fugitive Slave Bill,” in Proceedings of the State Convention of Colored People, Held at Albany, New-York, on the 22d, 23d and 24^th of July, 1851 (Albany: Charles Van Benthuysen, Printer, 1851), 29-30: https://omeka.coloredconventions.org/items/show/235.

EVENT: Reparations Webinar on NJ Reparations Council Report, January 27, 2026 at 7pm

The Reparations Commission of the Diocese of New Jersey invites you to join us for a webinar on Tuesday, January 27, 2026 at 7pm titled “For Such a Time as This: The Nowness of Reparations for Black People in New Jersey.” The webinar is part of our “Journey Toward Reparations” series and will feature a discussion of the New Jersey Reparations Council’s recently released report, presented by Jean-Pierre Brutus, Senior Counsel for the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice. Registration is now open. 

Jolyon G. R. Pruszinski, Ph.D.
Reparations Commission Historian
Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey

NEWS: San Francisco Creates Reparations Fund

Brocken Inaglory, San Francisco with two bridges and the low fog, Edited, CC BY-SA 3.0

In another success for reparations advocates, just before Christmas the mayor of San Francisco, Daniel Lurie, signed into law a local ordinance creating a reparative justice fund to address long-standing discrimination toward Black residents. According to recent reporting, the measure was approved unanimously by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and comes on the heels of the release of the “San Francisco Reparations Plan 2023” produced by the San Francisco African American Reparations Advisory Committee and the San Francisco Human Rights Commission (SFHRC). The measure did not specify a total amount for the fund, but will enable contributions from various entities including institutions, individuals, and city funds. The fund will be governed by the SFHRC, and while the ordinance does not specify the fund disbursement recipients, it is expected that it will fund projects proposed in the 2023 report. Subsequent deliberations will determine details the size, nature, and recipients of funds.

Jolyon G. R. Pruszinski, Ph.D.
Reparations Commission Historian
Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey